My Day at DoPS Part II: Return to Bureaucracy Mountain

The last time I went to DoPS it was a freaking nightmare.  The experience is a nightmare for most people as I have come to learn.

The office opens at 8 AM and when I got there at 7:45 AM the line was already about 20-30 people long. One past review of this DoPS office I read online said the reviewer got there to wait at 6:30 AM and was like the tenth person in line. Basically, people camp out at this place like they are buying the new iPhone.

Now judging the line gets tricky because not everyone in line needs help. Almost every one at DoPS arrives with at least one other person if not more. They bring their family members to translate for them, or because they are trying to get everyone taken care of at once, or because they can't drive or because they begged someone to go and wait with them so when their brain falls out of their head from boredom someone is there to shove it back in.


As I sat shaking (I had to drive myself and my anxiety was high) waiting my turn I listened to the front desk. Almost everyone had a specific, convoluted problem, had been to DoPS twice trying to fix their problem, or was from another country trying to navigate the bureaucracy.

Those were just the people who made it to the front desk and were able to have a lengthy discussion! That doesn't include the approximately ten people who were straight turned away after the doors opened. These people were upset, sighed and shouted their wait times as they exited. Their cries were swallowed up by the massive, congested freeway that runs parallel to the building. The cars slowly crawled to their destination as we slowly made our way in.

Congratulations! Turn to your right! Look upon thy future! Wait in this line so you can get a license to get in that line of cars on the freeway! AMERICUH!

This looks like California but Texas & California are basically the same.

In September my wait time was about two and a half hours. Today it was about 30-45 minutes and because I had waited over two months to make sure I had every scrap of paper (filed into a green binder we call the "BIG BOOK OF I FUCKIN' LIVE HERE) to prove residency, the process was smoother today.

Overall, a much more pleasant experience. I went early so everyone was less grumpy than they would be midday and when I walked out the door with my temporary sheet of paper at 8:45 AM- yes, you heard me correctly, they don't even give you THE LICENSE. You pay 25 dollars for the pleasure of the State of Texas to give you a paper and then you wait 2-4 weeks for the actual license.

It's still the 1980's in Texas! No wonder why the infrastructure here is bad and why I saw a lady dressed like my dubya-slinging Texas kindergarten teacher at Target yesterday.